News: Recovery Audit Contractor program to expand nationwide in March
CDI Strategies, November 1, 2007
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to CDI Strategies!
Clinical documentation improvement specialists across the country will have to keep another watchdog entity in the back of their minds starting next year, now that CMS is taking the first steps toward implementing its Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program nationwide in March 2008.
On October 19, CMS issued a request for proposals for contractors to staff the program, which reviews inpatient and outpatient hospital claims for coding errors and medical necessity issues. The RAC program is currently confined to California, New York, and Florida.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is strongly opposed to nationwide RAC expansion, noting that RAC contractors receive a percentage of the overpayment that they identify and collect. In a recent letter to CMS, the AHA stated, "This 'bounty hunter-like' payment mechanism gives RACs incentives to aggressively deny any claims that appear at all questionable."
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to CDI Strategies!
Related Products
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- Topic: CMS, OESS post new security compliance review information, checklist
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- Capturing all necessary codes for IUD insertion and removal can be challenging
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- News and briefs: Oklahoma Osteopathic Association against residency bill change
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- E-mailed
-
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- New conflicts of interest create new challenges
- Q/A. One injection code or two?
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- Q&A tackles coding questions about injections and infusions
- Joint Commission Center announces handoff communication solutions
- Inside best practice: Reduce patient falls with a stoplight
- Identify modifiable risk factors to prevent patient falls
- Searched